Fresh off the back of a solid win at Hinckley last time out, Jamin Hodgkins, and his Luctonians Rugby Football Club teammates knew their efforts would need to improve when pitting themselves against a side who came down from the level above last season, and they started in that fashion, with wave after wave of attack putting pressure on the Cinderford defense. The pressure eventually told and on seven minutes, man of the match Jame Mear was driven over the line at the back of an effective maul to give Luctonians the early lead. Hodgkins could not add the conversion into the breeze but 5 - 0 was a decent start for the men from Mortimer Park.
The hosts would establish themselves into the game, predominantly via their strong set piece and on thirteen minutes shaved the lead to two points as a breakdown infringement was punished by fly half Luke Mcmahon knocking over a penalty for 5 - 3. In what was turning into a very physical encounter Luctonians would build more pressure and reasserted the five point margin on 22 minutes, as Hodgkins made no mistake with a penalty, with Cinderford being pinged for offside in their own 22 meter area.
The teams would go in level at the break, as the men from The Forest took advantage of an increasing penalty count against Luctonians, which culminated in a yellow card to Conor Geraghty for repeated team infringements on 25 minutes. The 14 men held firm for the majority of the period, but right as Geraghty was being prepared to come back on, Cinderford created a smart overlap and McMahon went over in the left hand corner to tie things up, as he could not convert from the touchline.
Half Time Score would read Cinderford RFC 8 Luctoninas RFC 8.
The second period continued in hugely physical fashion, with both teams slugging it out at set-piece and in the collisions. Defenses largely remained on top, but there would be two more tries in a bruising half of rugby. The first of these came for the visitors on 56 minutes, as Caleb Montgomery went over for Luctonians, following a large number of phases where the visitors tried to bang the doors down. Eventually the Luctonians flanker would go in under the posts after the hosts’ defense could no longer cope with the physical battering. Hodgkins added the extras importantly to make it 15 – 8.
The other score of the half came up the other end of the pitch, as Cinderford got their powerful driving maul going and hooker Nathan Taylor dotted down amongst the pile of bodies on 67 minutes after a 5-meter lineout. Into the wind, fly half McMahon could not land the conversion, and it meant the visitors held a slender two point advantage heading into the final ten minutes, most of which was played out in Cinderford territory for Luctonians to claim a first ever league victory over their illustrious hosts.
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